Hugo, buy a program called Wipe Drive (
http://www.wipedrive.com/)
The Department Of Defense not only uses it, but certified it as being an excellent data eliminator.
It will completely wipe your drive back to factory settings, completely 100% clean, like it came out of a factory shipped carton brand new.
I use it when I format, to make sure there are no problems when I do my 6-12 month reinstallation of ME, or XP (depending on which computer I'm formatting, I have two, and they're old old beasts.)
It'll rip Vista off of there, no problem.
Now...the XP with the BIOS problem is insurmountable. You're going to need to borrow a friend's disc (OEM) and install it with that, but by using your Key, it will be legalized and you will have done nothing wrong. (The disc isn't important really, it's the actual Key that determines legality and what not. Although burned discs aren't legal, etc.)
Don't panic though, there's always a work around of some sort.
And thank you, no Vista for me. I didn't like what I experienced on a store display, and I'm fine with XP. (It works, it's relatively stable, and it's quite adaptable to older programs, etc.)
And if it's not too late, I'd be taking the computer back to Best Buy or raising hell and getting that key. It shouldn't be legal for them to sell you a computer with a trial version.
And unlike Pokey's psychic mind, not all of us are able to tell what's what with Best Buy. They've been known to use really underhanded and despicable tactics in the past (such as installing a new Hard Drive, saying the old one had failed reformatting, and then selling said used Hard Drive with the previous owner's information still intact to another person...)
You had no idea that it was a Vista trial, and I'm damn sure the fellas at Best Buy were less than forthcoming about it during their sales pitch, cuz let's face it. "**** the customer, that's my pizza and beer money tonight!"
I hope things go better for you.
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